This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Stein, R. E. K.
Right arrow Articles by Bauman, L. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Stein, R. E. K.
Right arrow Articles by Bauman, L. J.
Related Collections
Right arrow Office Practice

PEDIATRICS Vol. 107 No. 4 April 2001, p. e61

ELECTRONIC ARTICLE:
Shortening the Questionnaire for Identifying Children With Chronic Conditions: What Is the Consequence?

Received Sept 1, 2000; accepted Jan 8, 2001.

Ruth E. K. Stein, Ellen Johnson Silver, and Laurie J. Bauman

From the Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York.

Objective.  To determine whether a reduced item set can identify children who have chronic conditions with a level of at least 90% accuracy compared with the complete Questionnaire for Identifying Children With Chronic Conditions (QuICCC).

Background.  The QuICCC was developed to operationalize a conceptually based, noncategorical definition of chronic conditions developed by Stein et al. It contains 39 item sequences administered to a parent that assess 3 types of consequences: functional limitations; reliance on compensatory mechanisms or assistance; and service use or need above usual for age. The QuICCC has been validated and widely adopted as a means of identifying children without using a diagnosis checklist, but there is considerable interest in shortening it.

Design/Methods.  Through secondary analyses of 3 data sets (Ns = 1265, 1388, and 4831), we identified a short list of items that identified >90% of children who were identified by the 39-item QuICCC. We administered these 16 items to 2 new samples of parents. In Study 1 we administered the 16 items in the shortened version first, followed by the other 23 items, and compared the results on the short and reordered long versions. In Study 2, the 39- and 16-item versions were each administered, one in person and the other by phone, in random order to the same respondent within a 2-week period. These data were analyzed to compare the short and longer versions at the 2 time points and within the single, longer 39-item format (simultaneous data).

Results.  In Study 1 (N = 630) only 4 children were missed by the 16-item version who were identified by the longer version (sensitivity 98.6%; specificity 100%; positive predictive value 100%; negative predictive value 98.8% kappa  0.987). In Study 2 (N = 552), no children were missed by the 16-item subset of the 39 items when looking at the simultaneous data. When the two forms were administered 2 weeks apart, the 16-item version had a sensitivity of 87%, specificity of 90%, positive predictive value of 93%, negative predictive value of 82%, and kappa  of 0.78 compared with the longer QuICCC. These results correspond exactly to the data obtained in a 2-week test-retest study for the QuICCC itself. The new form (the QuICCC-R) takes <2 minutes to administer on average (range 1-4 minutes) compared with 7 to 8 minutes for the full QuICCC.

Conclusions.  The results met our criteria for agreement, and we conclude that the QuICCC-R is a satisfactory alternative for screening populations. However, the full QuICCC has other applications beyond screening that may not apply to the QuICCC-R, the shorter version.  Key words:  chronic conditions, functioning, identification, noncategorical definition, screening.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J Pediatr PsycholHome page
L. M. Youngblade and E. A. Shenkman
Congruence Between Parents' and Adolescents' Reports of Special Health Care Needs in a Title XXI Program
J. Pediatr. Psychol., September 1, 2003; 28(6): 393 - 401.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]